Fuel delivery systems for direct injection applications, such as, for example, fuel-injected engines used in various types of on-road and off-road vehicles, typically include one or more fuel rails having a plurality of fuel injectors associated therewith. In such applications, the fuel rails may include a plurality of apertures in which injector sockets or cups are affixed. The fuel injectors are then inserted into and coupled with the injector cups so as to allow for the fuel flowing in the fuel rail to be communicated to the fuel injectors. The fuel communicated from the fuel rail to the fuel injectors is then communicated to the combustion chamber of the engine. Accordingly, in these arrangements the fuel injectors are sandwiched between the fuel rail and a corresponding cylinder head of the engine.
One drawback of such direct injected systems, however, is that the sandwiched arrangement of the fuel injector causes undesirable noise in the system. Prior attempts at eliminating or at least reducing this noise have included suspending the injector from the fuel rail. To do so, an O-ring seal and a fuel injector clip (due to the high pressure attendant in the system (i.e., on the order of 10 MPa or more)) are used to seal the connection between the fuel rail and fuel injector, and to hold and retain the injector in the correct position. Accordingly, the sealing and retention functions are performed separately. While such an arrangement may reduce the noise in the system, it requires additional components (e.g., the O-ring and the clip), which in turn increases both the weight and cost of the overall system and the corresponding manufacturing process.
Therefore, there is a need for a fuel delivery system that will minimize and/or eliminate one or more of the above-identified deficiencies.